That’s my dinosaur pencil!

An owner's perspective

That’s my dinosaur pencil!

An owner's perspective

For the last 18 months, Amy has been booking out her home, Ellis Road, exclusively through Fresh Locations and in this time she has had multiple bookings including several TV commercials and many photo shoots.

“I called Michelle at Fresh and she came round to see my home really quickly. She filled me with confidence by helping me to understand what to expect, and took the time to get to know what I needed from using my home as a location.”

Showing owners the potential of their home is an important part of the process. “It turns out that the renovations we did to create an open plan living area works really well for shoots, and gives plenty of room for setting-up, especially on bigger ones where there can be up to 35 crew in the space.”

“Michelle also highlighted that the rugby ground opposite was a really great benefit, as it gives production crews plenty of space to park their trucks and equipment.”

The house has been popular, and there have been around 15 shoots since it was added to the Fresh Locations library. “It is important to make the production crew feel welcome”, Amy said, “one director saw several other locations, but remembered Ellis Road being relaxed and wanted to come back.”

Amy is happy for the crew to use some of the children's toys or other things in the house as props. “The crews always ask so I have no problem with them using the toys for example, it's all about being flexible."

"It's not the same for everyone in the family though. On a shoot the other day my son pointed to a shelf on set and screamed, "That’s my dinosaur pencil!", and then demanded to take all his toys to school with him."

When asked for her advice to new property owners, Amy’s said “It’s your home so be relaxed, but if you aren’t happy, don't feel worried about saying so. Fresh really are there every step of the way, and they know what they are talking about.”